Special Events-November 2013

NYC, Hell 3:00am (w/ live score by James Ferraro!)

A dark, immersive live synth experience!

11/23/2013 - 10:30PM

It’s our pleasure to welcome back one of electronic music’s most exciting “avant-OMGarde provocateurs”: James Ferraro. At last year’s Cinefamily Halloween Party, his live score to the ‘80s horror oddity Boardinghouse made us fall in love with his lo-fi, VHS-inspired nightmarish soundscapes. True to his mission of always mixing it up, and heading out in uncharted directions, James’ new multimedia project NYC, Hell 3:00am proves to be his darkest and most mysterious yet. James sez: “This record is about my demons just as much as society’s demons. My environment/location, samples from 9/11 news coverage, surveillance camera audio, TV ads and other sources are arranged together to create a surreal psychological sculpture of American decay and confusion — a map of New York’s nihilism and self-referential hedonism. It’s a statement about my emotional Hell, and my surroundings: rats, metal landscape, toxic water, junkie friends, HIV billboards, evil news, luxury and boundless wealth, insane police presence, lonely people, all against the sinister vastness of Manhattan’s alienating skyline.” Join us as we breathe in James’ live synth manipulations, which form the heart of this immersive A/V experience.

Join the cast and creators for a preview screening of the first four chapters of Paradise Rising, the epic new season of the surreal [adult swim] original action comedy Eagleheart. Unlike previous seasons, Paradise Rising is a serialized ten-part adventure. Like previous seasons, it is overflowing with thrills, spills, brain-shatteringly dumb twists, and Chris Elliott getting showered in blood.

NOTE: This show is free (first-come, first-serve). To help us track attendance, you must pre-register for “first-come, first-serve” admission. All current 1-year “Black Card” Cinefamily members get first entry. Your registration does not guarantee you a seat. Early arrival is highly recommended.

The Act of Killing (co-director Joshua Oppenheimer in person!)

Could change your thoughts on docs forever!

11/7/2013 - 7:30PM

“I have not seen a film as powerful, surreal, and frightening in at least a decade — it is unprecedented in the history of cinema.” – Werner Herzog

Filmmaker Josh Oppenheimer in person! In this chilling, inventive documentary (executive-produced by Errol Morris and Werner Herzog), we travel to the formerly war-ravaged Indonesia: a nation blanketed across the board with post-traumatic stress disorder, and where death squad leaders are bizarrely celebrated as heroes. As the filmmakers challenge survivors of the war — both the killers and the victims — to reenact their real-life horrors in the style of the American movies they love, the hallucinatory result is a cinematic fever dream: an unsettling journey deep into the imaginations of mass-murderers, and the shockingly banal regime of corruption and impunity they inhabit. Shaking audiences at the 2012 Toronto and Telluride Film Festivals, and winning an Audience Award at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, The Act of Killing is a must-see film that, as the Los Angeles Times says, “could well change how you view the documentary form.”
Dirs. Joshua Oppenheimer, Christine Cynn & Anonymous, 2012, DCP, 115 min.

Described as an “anti-jukebox musical with a sex change”, Peaches Does Herself is the directorial debut of performer/musician Peaches, and documents the mythical history of this pioneering pomosexual powerhouse through her electro-rock opera stage show staged in Berlin during 2010/11. The film follows our heroine through her journey from bedroom wannabe to glittering rockstar; on the advice of a 65-year-old stripper, Peaches makes music that’s sexually forthright, becomes world-famous, swaps her gender, experiences crushing heartbreak at the hands of a beautiful shemale, and must discover deep-down just what she really is. Through a selection of songs from Peaches’ four official albums (re-interpreted by the grand dirty dame herself), plus a wild buffet of oversized props, costumes and attitude, Peaches Does Herself is a true carnival of carnal excess. Schedule permitting, Peaches will be here in person for a Q&A after the film!
Dir. Peaches, 2012, digital presentation, 80 min.

Described as an “anti-jukebox musical with a sex change”, Peaches Does Herself is the directorial debut of performer/musician Peaches, and documents the mythical history of this pioneering pomosexual powerhouse through her electro-rock opera stage show staged in Berlin during 2010/11. The film follows our heroine through her journey from bedroom wannabe to glittering rockstar; on the advice of a 65-year-old stripper, Peaches makes music that’s sexually forthright, becomes world-famous, swaps her gender, experiences crushing heartbreak at the hands of a beautiful shemale, and must discover deep-down just what she really is. Through a selection of songs from Peaches’ four official albums (re-interpreted by the grand dirty dame herself), plus a wild buffet of oversized props, costumes and attitude, Peaches Does Herself is a true carnival of carnal excess. Schedule permitting, Peaches will be here in person for a Q&A after the film!
Dir. Peaches, 2012, digital presentation, 80 min.

The Visitor (11/3)

The Omen meets Close Encounters!

11/3/2013 - 10:30PM

To celebrate Drafthouse Films’ release of our all-time favorite cinematic slab of insanity, it’s a weekend’s worth of the movie 1979 couldn’t handle! The holiest of all Holyfuckingshits, The Visitor has the highest JDPM (Jaw Drops Per Minute) ratio of any film of its era, Italian ripoff or not. It’s a wonderful mishmash of The Omen and Close Encounters, but that barely hints at the whacked fervor with which director Giulio Paradisi hurls his hastily assembled “all-star” cast (John Huston, Glenn Ford, Shelley Winters, and, yes, Lance Henriksen) into the cinematic void, showering them with what the Alamo Drafthouse has called “a blackhearted blowout of interplanetary possession, telekinetic avian assault, exploding basketballs and ecclesiastical laserstorms.” Just when you think you’ve nailed down which direction the film is heading in, it completely shatters your notion of the time-space continuum with enough force to rival a thousand screenings of Zabriskie Point. If you miss out on this one, then you have as much regard for cinema as you do for a discarded toenail clipping.
Dir. Giulio Paradisi, 1979, 35mm, 108 min.

The Visitor (11/2)

The Omen meets Close Encounters!

11/2/2013 - MIDNITE

To celebrate Drafthouse Films’ release of our all-time favorite cinematic slab of insanity, it’s a weekend’s worth of the movie 1979 couldn’t handle! The holiest of all Holyfuckingshits, The Visitor has the highest JDPM (Jaw Drops Per Minute) ratio of any film of its era, Italian ripoff or not. It’s a wonderful mishmash of The Omen and Close Encounters, but that barely hints at the whacked fervor with which director Giulio Paradisi hurls his hastily assembled “all-star” cast (John Huston, Glenn Ford, Shelley Winters, and, yes, Lance Henriksen) into the cinematic void, showering them with what the Alamo Drafthouse has called “a blackhearted blowout of interplanetary possession, telekinetic avian assault, exploding basketballs and ecclesiastical laserstorms.” Just when you think you’ve nailed down which direction the film is heading in, it completely shatters your notion of the time-space continuum with enough force to rival a thousand screenings of Zabriskie Point. If you miss out on this one, then you have as much regard for cinema as you do for a discarded toenail clipping.
Dir. Giulio Paradisi, 1979, 35mm, 108 min.

The Visitor (11/1)

The Omen meets Close Encounters!

11/1/2013 - MIDNITE

To celebrate Drafthouse Films’ release of our all-time favorite cinematic slab of insanity, it’s a weekend’s worth of the movie 1979 couldn’t handle! The holiest of all Holyfuckingshits, The Visitor has the highest JDPM (Jaw Drops Per Minute) ratio of any film of its era, Italian ripoff or not. It’s a wonderful mishmash of The Omen and Close Encounters, but that barely hints at the whacked fervor with which director Giulio Paradisi hurls his hastily assembled “all-star” cast (John Huston, Glenn Ford, Shelley Winters, and, yes, Lance Henriksen) into the cinematic void, showering them with what the Alamo Drafthouse has called “a blackhearted blowout of interplanetary possession, telekinetic avian assault, exploding basketballs and ecclesiastical laserstorms.” Just when you think you’ve nailed down which direction the film is heading in, it completely shatters your notion of the time-space continuum with enough force to rival a thousand screenings of Zabriskie Point. If you miss out on this one, then you have as much regard for cinema as you do for a discarded toenail clipping.
Dir. Giulio Paradisi, 1979, 35mm, 108 min.